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How to Remake Education

The single biggest problem in American education is that no one agrees on why we educate. Faced with this lack of consensus, policy makers define good education as higher test scores. But higher test scores are not a definition of good education. Students can get higher scores in reading and mathematics yet remain completely ignorant of science, the arts, civics, history, literature and foreign languages.

Why do we educate? We educate because we want citizens who are capable of taking responsibility for their lives and for our democracy. We want citizens who understand how their government works, who are knowledgeable about the history of their nation and other nations. We need citizens who are thoroughly educated in science. We need people who can communicate in other languages. We must ensure that every young person has the chance to engage in the arts.

But because of our narrow-minded utilitarianism, we have forgotten what good education is.

DIANE RAVITCH Ravitch is a historian. Her book ‘‘The Death and Life of the Great American School System’’ will be published in February.

Tech Is The Key

Technology has transformed communications, increased the efficiency of retailing and helped elect a president. But because education is largely protected from incentives and consequences, it lags in embracing technology.

That must and will change. At a New York City pilot program, School of One, for example, each student has a daily ‘‘playlist’’ tailored to their instructional level, interests and learning style. The school blends online learning, small group sessions and tutoring. It’s a vivid picture of the shift from age cohorts slogging through a textbook to personalized digital learning.

This fall, about two million K-12 students will be learning online at home and at school (about 4 percent of the national student body). By 2020, I believe most high-school students will do most of their learning online. It shouldn’t take thatlong, but it will.

New tools already make possible a generation of schools that blend the best of online and on-site learning. They will be less expensive and more fun, delivering excellence with equity.

Discredit the bachelor’s degree as a job credential. It does not signify the acquisition of a liberal education. It does not even tell an employer that the graduate can put together a logical and syntactically correct argument. It serves as rough and unreliable evidence of a degree of intelligence and perseverance — that’s it. Yet across much of the job market, young people can’t get their foot in the door without that magic piece of paper.

As President Obama promotes community colleges, he could transform the national conversation about higher education if he acknowledges the B.A. has become meaningless. Then perhaps three reforms can begin: community colleges and their online counterparts will become places to teach and learn without any reference to the bachelor’s degree; the status associated with the bachelor’s degree will be lessened; and colleges will be forced to demonstrate just what their expensivefour-year undergraduate programs do better, not in theory but in practice.

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CHARLES MURRAYMurray is the W. H. Brady scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and the author of ‘‘Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America’s Schools Back to Reality.’’

Intervene Earlier

When I began investing philanthropically in 2000, I wanted to address achievement gaps. In searching for answers, I spoke with John Mackiel, superintendent of Omaha’s public schools, where I sent my own children. He emphasized early education. It wasn’t impossible for disadvantaged students to catch up later — just a lot harder, and costlier.

Looking for a program to replicate in Omaha, I found Educare, on Chicago’s South Side. Inside Educare, kids facing the worst odds find, beginning at birth, a full-day, full-year oasis. Visit and you’ll see highly trained teachers, down on the floor, talking, singing and inspiring.

Today, 8 Educares are open across America, with 12 more in the pipeline, each supported by partnerships of local philanthropies, public schools and early childhood providers. Educares provide a lever to improve state and federal policies: they show policy makers what ‘‘high quality’’ looks like and what investment can produce. Educare students come close to national norms by the time they reach kindergarten. That is big news, and a solid investment in human capital.

SUSIE BUFFETTBuffett is chairwoman of the Buffett Early Childhood Fund.

More Time In School

Our schools were designed to prepare children for jobs that predominated in the 1930s. Children didn’t need a thorough education for manufacturing jobs. Summers were for working in the fields with your hands, not sharpening your mind. One result is that we have one of the shortest school years in the industrialized world. When you look at our (roughly) 180 school days in comparison with Japan and Germany (about 240), you see how our children are underprepared for competition almost from Day 1.

To properly prepare American children, we must take on the adults who oppose change. Some educators and unions won’t even consider working longer hours or a longer school year. I believe teachers must be paid decent salaries like their peers — doctors and lawyers — and work the same hours that most professions demand. National success will not be based on how much iron ore was mined but on how many children can access the new international currency: intellectual prowess.

GEOFFREY CANADACanada is president and chief executive of Harlem Children’s Zone.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page MM34 of the Sunday Magazine with the headline: Tech Is The Key. Today's Paper|Subscribe